Author: James Edward Mills

Outdoor clothing maker Patagonia surprised holiday shoppers with a compelling ad in the New York Times. “Don’t Buy This Jacket” the headline read on November 25th, the day after Thanksgiving, also known as Black Friday.
Hoping to move business well out of the red, big national retailers offered up equally large discounts to lure customers in droves. Many customers, excited to pick up a few bargains, camped out overnight to be among the first in line when retail doors opened, well before dawn. For many it’s an annual Yuletide...

Making the rounds at mountain film festivals all over the world is a new movie by Anson Fogel and Cory Richards. In the classic style of adventure storytelling Richards shares his tale of three climbers in his award-winning film 'Cold'.
“It’s a very raw real look into what’s kind of going on inside my head as I did a climb with Simone Moro and Denis Urubko last winter on a peak called Gasherbrum II,” Richards said in an interview.
[audio mp3="http://joytrip2019.mhwebstaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Cold1.mp3"][/audio]
Ascending one of the highest peaks in the world at...

It’s the first week of December and I’m still out on the water! Thanks to this GORE-TEX Lightweight Paddling Suit from Kokatat I can still get out on my stand up paddleboard for morning workouts even as chilly temperatures welcome another Wisconsin winter.
As an adventure journalist I use GORE-TEX gear to venture out into the world and bring back many of the interesting stories you find here at the Joy Trip Project. Products constructed with this amazing waterproof breathable material have made it possible for me to stay...

Back in January I reported on the plans of photojournalists Alan Winslow and Morrigan McCarthy to map the minds of young people around the world. Riding bicycles from Anchorage, Alaska the two are peddling across 50 countries and over 30,000 miles on an expedition to discover what their 20-something peers are thinking about. The Geography of Youth project began in July and I managed to catch Morrigan on the phone for an update as she and Alan made their way across the boarder into Mexico.
“We’ll cruise through Central and South America and then we head on to Africa,” she said.

Photojournalists Benjamin Drummond and Sara Joy Steele want to show a side of science that often goes overlooked. Based more on observation and than hard data-based research natural history is science so soft as to be considered art. The role of natural historians has long been to document the current state of life on our planet. And in the hopes of capturing the thoughts and impressions of leading experts on the subject the Natural History Network commissioned Drummond and Steele to help tell their story.

I met Kathryn Ely on one of her good days. The progression of her illness had left her with little appetite. But as she perused the menu of this Castro Valley, California coffee shop she smiled.
“I think I’ll have bacon,” Kat said. “I might regret it later. But right now I don’t care.”
You really can make friends on Facebook. Over the past several months Kat and I had become acquainted online. Mutual interests in backpacking and philanthropy brought us together and a joy trip out west gave us...